This invention relates to an improved tool for use in tying artificial fishing flies, and more specifically for securing the tying thread to the hook shank by what is well known as a whip finishing knot.
Although fly tiers have long used the whip finishing knot, its application, for all but the more highly skilled and dexterious user, was often extremely difficult. Various tools were divised in attempts to solve the problem, a recent example of which is U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,736. However, such prior art tools failed to produce satisfactory results. One primary disadvantage was that they were difficult or impossible to manipulate through an entire knot tying procedure without having the thread inadvertently disengage from the tool at some point. This was particularly a problem with such tools when tying flies on relatively small hooks. In another prior art tool disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,959 an attempt was made to solve the problem by forming the whip finishing knot in two stages, that is, by removing the tool from the tying thread during the knot tying procedure and using it subsequently to manipulate a loop of the knot. However, this procedure proved to be cumbersome, time consuming and generally unsatisfactory.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved whip finishing tool for fly tiers that will enable a whip finishing knot to be made rapidly with a continuous sequence of steps wherein the thread does not become disengaged from the tool until the knot is complete.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a whip finishing tool that is particularly useful in tying a whip finishing knot on relatively small hooks, as well as the larger ones.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a whip finishing tool that is particularly well adapted for ease and economy of manufacture.